More proof that the moon landing was fake?

'Moon rock' in Dutch museum is just petrified wood

By TOBY STERLING, Associated Press Writer



AMSTERDAM – It's not green cheese, but it might as well be.

The Dutch national museum said Thursday that one of its prized possessions, a rock supposedly brought back from the moon by U.S. astronauts, is just a piece of petrified wood.

Rijksmuseum spokeswoman Xandra van Gelder, who oversaw the investigation that proved the piece was a fake, said the museum will keep it anyway as a curiosity.

"It's a good story, with some questions that are still unanswered," she said. "We can laugh about it."

The museum acquired the rock after the death of former Prime Minister Willem Drees in 1988. Drees received it as a private gift on Oct. 9, 1969 from then-U.S. ambassador J. William Middendorf during a visit by the three Apollo 11 astronauts, part of their "Giant Leap" goodwill tour after the first moon landing.

Middendorf, who lives in Rhode Island, told Dutch broadcaster NOS news that he had gotten it from the U.S. State Department, but couldn't recall the exact details.

"I do remember that (Drees) was very interested in the little piece of stone," the NOS quoted Middendorf as saying. "But that it's not real, I don't know anything about that."

He could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

The U.S. Embassy in the Hague said it was investigating the matter.

The museum had vetted the moon rock with a phone call to NASA, Van Gelder said.

She said the space agency told the museum then that it was possible the Netherlands had received a rock: NASA gave moon rocks to more than 100 countries in the early 1970s, but those were from later missions.

"Apparently no one thought to doubt it, since it came from the prime minister's collection," Van Gelder said.

The rock is not usually on display; the museum is primarily known for its paintings and other works of fine art by masters such as Rembrandt.

A jagged fist-size stone with reddish tints, it was mounted and placed above a plaque that said, "With the compliments of the Ambassador of the United States of America ... to commemorate the visit to The Netherlands of the Apollo-11 astronauts." The plaque does not specify that the rock came from the moon's surface

It was given at the opening of an exhibition on space exploration.

It was on show in 2006 and a space expert informed the museum it was unlikely NASA would have given away any moon rocks three months after Apollo returned to Earth.

Researchers from Amsterdam's Free University said they could see at a glance the rock was probably not from the moon. They followed the initial appraisal up with extensive testing.

"It's a nondescript, pretty-much-worthless stone," Geologist Frank Beunk concluded in an article published by the museum.

He said the rock, which the museum at one point insured for more than half a million dollars, was worth no more than euro50 ($70).

Van Gelder said one important unanswered question is why Drees was given the stone. He was 83 years old in 1969 and had been out of office for 11 years. On the other hand, he was the country's elder statesman, the prime minister who helped the Netherlands rebuild after World War II.

Middendorf was treasurer of the Republic National Committee from 1965 until 1969, when President Richard Nixon dispatched him to the Netherlands.

Former New York rapper Roxanne got her Ph.D for free

Source: Yahoo News, New York Daily News:Queens

BY Walter Dawkins - SPECIAL TO THE NEWS



Roxanne's revenge was sweet indeed.

Twenty-five years after the first queen of hip-hop was stiffed on her royalty checks, Dr. Roxanne Shante boasts an Ivy League Ph.D. - financed by a forgotten clause in her first record deal.

"This is a story that needs to be told," Shante said. "I'm an example that you can be a teenage mom, come from the projects, and be raised by a single parent, and you can still come out of it a doctor."

Her prognosis wasn't as bright in the years after the '80s icon scored a smash hit at age 14: "Roxanne's Revenge," a razor-tongued response to rap group UTFO's mega-hit "Roxanne, Roxanne."

The 1984 single sold 250,000 copies in New York City alone, making Shante (born Lolita Gooden) hip hop's first female celebrity.

She blazed a trail followed by Lil' Kim, Salt-N-Pepa and Queen Latifah - although Shante didn't share their success.

After two albums, Shante said, she was disillusioned by the sleazy music industry and swindled by her record company. The teen mother, living in the Queensbridge Houses, recalled how her life was shattered.

"Everybody was cheating with the contracts, stealing and telling lies," she said. "And to find out that I was just a commodity was heartbreaking."

But Shante, then 19, remembered a clause in her Warner Music recording contract: The company would fund her education for life.

She eventually cashed in, earning a Ph.D. in psychology from Cornell to the tune of $217,000 - all covered by the label. But getting Warner Music to cough up the dough was a battle.

"They kept stumbling over their words, and they didn't have an exact reason why they were telling me no," Shante said.

She figured Warner considered the clause a throwaway, never believing a teen mom in public housing would attend college. The company declined to comment for this story.

Shante found an arm-twisting ally in Marguerita Grecco, the dean at Marymount Manhattan College. Shante showed her the contract, and the dean let her attend classes for free while pursuing the money.

"I told Dean Grecco that either I'm going to go here or go to the streets, so I need your help," Shante recalls. "She said, 'We're going to make them pay for this.'"

Grecco submitted and resubmitted the bills to the label, which finally agreed to honor the contract when Shante threatened to go public with the story.

Shante earned her doctorate in 2001, and launched an unconventional therapy practice focusing on urban African-Americans - a group traditionally reluctant to seek mental health help.

"People put such a taboo on therapy, they feel it means they're going crazy," she explained. "No, it doesn't. It just means you need someone else to talk to."

Shante often incorporates hip-hop music into her sessions, encouraging her clients to unleash their inner MC and shout out exactly what's on their mind.

"They can't really let loose and enjoy life," she said. "So I just let them unlock those doors."

Shante, 38, is also active in the community. She offers $5,000 college scholarships each semester to female rappers through the nonprofit Hip Hop Association.

She also dispenses advice to young women in the music business via a MySpace page.

"I call it a warning service, so their dreams don't turn into nightmares," she said.

Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons said Shante is a shining role model for the rap community. "Dr. Shante's life is inspiring," Simmons said. "She was a go-getter who rose from the struggle and went from hustling to teaching. She is a prime example that you can do anything, and everything is possible."

Video coming soon to magazines and newspapers

Source: Fox News youtube channel

Ramadan dates in Egypt name after President Barack Obama

Source: Yahoo News, Associated Press

By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, Associated Press Writer



CAIRO – For the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Egyptian fruit sellers have named their best dates of the year after President Barack Obama in a sweet tribute to the American leader for his outreach to the Muslim world.

Dates are a traditional food for Ramadan — which begins Saturday in most of the Islamic world — since the Prophet Muhammad is said to have used them to break the month's sunrise-to-sunset fast each evening.

In Egypt, shops have created a new tradition of naming their best and worst dates to catch attention and boost sales — giving a little reflection of the political mood.

Obama's vault to the top of the Egyptian date-scale comes after he delivered a landmark address in Cairo in June, saying he wants to improve American ties with Muslims around the world. Those ties were deeply strained under his predecessor, George W. Bush, who was widely resented in the Arab world — and whose name was given to the worst quality dates in Egypt in past Ramadans.

"We love Obama and so we named our best dates for him," said Atif Hashim at his busy shop in downtown Cairo.

Huge barrels in his shop were piled with "Obama" dates, selling for just under $2.50 a pound ($5 a kilogram). For an additional dollar, there is an even better date, labeled on a sign as "Super Obama."

"We put a sweet date in Mr. Obama's mouth and a message in his ear," Hashim said. "Please help to bring peace to the world. We have a lot of hope in you."

Hashim named his poorer dates after Israeli Foreign Minister Avidgor Lieberman, a hard-liner who is particularly disliked in Egypt for once saying its president, Hosni Mubarak, can "go to hell."

Other low-quality dates were named after Lieberman's predecessor, Tzipi Livni, and after Bush. They all go for about 17 cents a pound (36 cents a kilogram).

In 2006, many sellers in Egypt named their best dates after the leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, whose popularity soared among Arabs because his militants battled Israel in a devastating war that summer.

During the lunar month of Ramadan, observant Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex from sunrise to sunset. It is believed that God began revealing the Quran to Muhammad during Ramadan, and the faithful are supposed to spend the month in religious reflection, prayer and remembrance of the poor.

It's also a time of celebrations, late nights out with friends and family and elaborate meals for "iftar," the sunset dinner that breaks the fast.

This year, Ramadan starts in August for the first time in 33 years — meaning a long, hot day for those fasting. In a bid to bring up the time for iftar, Egypt went off daylight savings time on Friday.

The fast begins Saturday for most of the Mideast and Asia, although Libya, Turkey, and some Lebanese Shiites began fasting Friday. The month begins when each Muslim country's Islamic authorities sight the crescent moon that marks the beginning of the lunar month — sometimes using only the naked eye, leading to some discrepancies in the timing.

In the West Bank town of Ramallah, Palestinians decorated their houses with lights in the shape of crescents and stars and shops began preparing special pastries and traditional Ramadan drinks like kharoub, made of carobs. The Israeli military said it would keep checkpoints open longer hours to allow more people to cross.

In Hamas-controlled Gaza City, officials hung signs reading "Welcome Ramadan" and provided mosques with large carpets to accommodate the increased number of worshippers.

Shops sold little electric lamps, a traditional children's toy during Ramadan — made in China and brought through smuggling tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border to circumvent the blockade imposed on Gaza by Israel and Egypt after Hamas seized power two years ago.

In Turkey, the mosques were jam-packed and municipalities set up soup kitchens to serve iftar to the poor. Holiday-makers began deserting beach resorts to return home. Newspapers carried recommendations from dietitians and Mehmet Emin Ozafsar, the deputy head of Turkey's department for religious affairs, urged people observing the fast not to use it as an excuse for "aggressive behavior" or abstinence from work.

"Fasting is patience and tolerance," Ozafsar said.

IBM DNA microchips

Source: Yahoo News

By Clare Baldwin

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -

International Business Machines Corp is looking to the building blocks of our bodies -- DNA -- to be the structure of next-generation microchips.

As chipmakers compete to develop ever-smaller chips at cheaper prices, designers are struggling to cut costs.

Artificial DNA nanostructures, or "DNA origami" may provide a cheap framework on which to build tiny microchips, according to a paper published on Sunday in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Microchips are used in computers, cell phones and other electronic devices.

"This is the first demonstration of using biological molecules to help with processing in the semiconductor industry," IBM research manager Spike Narayan said in an interview with Reuters.

"Basically, this is telling us that biological structures like DNA actually offer some very reproducible, repetitive kinds of patterns that we can actually leverage in semiconductor processes," he said.

The research was a joint undertaking by scientists at IBM's Almaden Research Center and the California Institute of Technology.

Right now, the tinier the chip, the more expensive the equipment. Narayan said that if the DNA origami process scales to production-level, manufacturers could trade hundreds of millions of dollars in complex tools for less than a million dollars of polymers, DNA solutions, and heating implements.

"The savings across many fronts could add up significantly," he said.

But the new processes are at least 10 years out. Narayan said that while the DNA origami could allow chipmakers to build frameworks that are far smaller than possible with conventional tools, the technique still needs years of experimentation and testing.

Federal Notes laced with cocaine

Source: Yahoo News, LiveScience

races of cocaine taint up to 90 percent of paper money in the United States, a new study finds.

A group of scientists tested banknotes from more than 30 cities in five countries, including the United States, Canada, Brazil, China, and Japan, and found "alarming" evidence of cocaine use in many areas.

U.S. and Canadian currency had the highest levels, with an average contamination rate of between 85 and 90 percent, while Chinese and Japanese currency had the lowest, between 12 and 20 percent contamination.

The findings were presented yesterday at the 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Washington, D.C.

Study leader Yuegang Zuo of the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth said that the high percentage of contaminated U.S. currency observed in the current study represents nearly a 20 percent jump in comparison to a similar study he conducted two years ago.

"To my surprise, we're finding more and more cocaine in banknotes," Zuo said.

Scientists have known for years that paper money can become contaminated with cocaine during drug deals and directly through drug use, such as snorting cocaine through rolled bills. Contamination can also spread to banknotes not involved in the illicit drug culture, because bills are processed in banks' currency-counting machines.

"I'm not sure why we've seen this apparent increase, but it could be related to the economic downturn, with stressed people turning to cocaine," Zuo said.

Such studies are useful, he noted, because the data can help law enforcement agencies and forensic specialists identify patterns of drug use in a community.

Previous studies that have reported on cocaine traces on money have had several drawbacks, Zuo said. Some only sampled a small number of bills, while others destroyed the money in the process of testing.

Zuo and his colleagues used a modified instrument that allowed for faster, simpler and more accurate measurement of cocaine contamination than other methods, without destroying the currency.

The amounts of cocaine found on U.S. bills ranged from .006 micrograms (several thousands of times smaller than a single grain of sand) to more than 1,240 micrograms of cocaine per banknote (about 50 grains of sand).

The scientists found that larger cities like Baltimore, Boston, and Detroit had among the highest average cocaine levels. Washington, D.C., ranked above the average, with 95 percent of the banknotes sampled contaminated with the drug. The lowest average cocaine levels in U.S. currency appeared on bills collected from Salt Lake City.

Despite the high percentage of cocaine-contaminated banknotes, Zuo points out that the amount of cocaine found on most notes was so small that consumers should not have any health or legal concerns about handling paper money.

"For the most part, you can't get high by sniffing a regular banknote, unless it was used directly in drug uptake or during a drug exchange," Zuo said. "It also won't affect your health and is unlikely to interfere with blood and urine tests used for drug detection.

Noble Drew Ali Plaza is getting a tune up

* Yes, it is named after Noble Drew Ali, founder of the Moorish Science Temple.

Source: Yahoo News, New York Daily News

BY Erin Durkin - DAILY NEWS WRITER



Just a few years ago, Brownsville's Noble Drew Ali Plaza housing complex looked like a lost cause.

The courtyard was an open-air drug market. Two of the five buildings were vacant and taken over by squatters and drug dealers — including one dealer who commandeered 20 apartments and sold $20,000 of heroin a day.

Hallways were filled with urine, graffiti and garbage, and front-door locks were always broken.

"It was a mess here. . . . There was a lot of crime, people getting shot and killed," said Remy Johnson, 54. "It was disgusting. It wasn't even livable."

But after ex-Mets slugger Mo Vaughn bought the 386-unit complex in 2007, city cops and a private security firm launched a major effort to clean it up.

The results are impressive.

Major crimes at Noble Drew Ali have been cut in half since 2006, according to Deputy Inspector Samuel Wright, commander of the 73rd Precinct.

Cops swooped in and arrested 35 alleged drug dealers in June 2007. The new owners spent $23 million to rehab the apartment buildings and beef up security.

But the improvements have come at a price to tenants' privacy.

Residents now live under the watchful eye of 325 cameras — almost one for every apartment — installed in courtyards, stairwells and elevators.

Several residents complained that getting into the complex was restrictive: Security guards check IDs and tenants must use keys with sensors to pass through locked gates.

Investigators from SecureWatch 24 observe digital images streamed to flat-screen monitors, and crack down on small offenses to deter bigger crimes.

"It wasn't just slap up cameras and everybody cross their fingers," said SecureWatch 24 president Desmond Smyth.

"You have to fix the door immediately after it's broken. You have to pursue the arrest on the person who broke the door or graffitied the elevator," he said. "The idea is to create an environment that's just too uncomfortable to operate illegal activities in."

Neil Nappi, security director of Omni New York, played back video of a teenager kicking a hole in a laundry room wall — and then looking up at a security camera and realizing his mistake.

"He knows he's on camera. He knows he just screwed up," said Nappi, adding the young man's family was charged to fix the wall.

When bigger crimes happen, the cameras catch those, too. Cops arrested a suspect in a July 3 shooting near the plaza after spotting him on video carrying a gun.

Most tenants welcomed the changes.

"You're never going to get rid of drugs [but] we came a long way," Johnson said. "If someone does something wrong, they're going to get caught."

But some say the crackdown has gone too far. Claudette Robinson, 44, said her son is frequently stopped by cops.

"Every night he gets harassed by the police," said Robinson. "I want a change, but the police harassment I don't like."

SecureWatch uses similar tactics at 1,200 other properties around the city — but Noble Drew Ali was one of the hardest cases.

"It was really Brooklyn's house of horrors," said executive vice president Thomas Barrett.

Police from the 73rd Precinct also stepped up patrols to the complex, and entered the area in the Impact Zone program, where rookie cops flood the zone to reduce quality of life offenses, Wright said.

There were 10 assaults and five robberies reported at the property in 2006, compared with two assaults and one robbery so far this year, he said.

Robinson admitted the complex is "much quieter now; it's peaceful. . . . We still got rats . . . but they're trying."

The Philosophical Baby

Source: Yahoo News, TIME

Child Psychology: A New Look Inside Babies Minds

By RANDY JAMES

Sure, they may while away their days eating, sleeping and soiling diapers. But Alison Gopnik says it's high time that babies got some respect. In her new book, The Philosophical Baby, the University of California, Berkeley, psychologist says modern research is revolutionizing our understanding of the first years of life, revealing early childhood to be a frenzied period of intellectual, emotional and moral development. "Any child will put the most productive scientist to shame," she writes. Gopnik spoke with TIME about the origins of creativity, the "boondoggle" of educational toys and discerning right and wrong during this uniquely fertile period of life.

- You say that for most of history, babies were seen as "vegetables with a few reflexes." What's going on in a baby's mind that we didn't appreciate before?

If you just casually look at a baby, it doesn't look like there's very much going on there, but they know more and learn more than we would ever have thought. Every single minute is incredibly full of thought and novelty. It's easy as adults to take for granted everything it took to arrive at the state where we are.

- You say babies are more imaginative and even more conscious than adults.

They take in much more information from different sources than adults do and work very hard to make sense of that information. It's one reason we think babies sleep so much - they're doing much harder work than grown-ups are. They are the R&D department of the human species.

- How about moral development? One of the great philosophical debates is whether people are born with an innate sense of right and wrong or whether it develops over time. Does your research shed light on that question?

Yes, there's quite clearly an innate basis for our moral sentiments. The youngest children have a great capacity for empathy and altruism. There's a recent study that shows even 14-month-olds will climb across a bunch of cushions and go across a room to give you a pen if you drop one. And we know babies imitate facial expressions and are sensitive to emotions; there seems to be a very strong connection with other people early on. It is a very hopeful finding.

- What does research suggest about the link between unstructured playtime and creativity later in life?

There's a little bit of evidence that adults who are novelists or musicians, for example, tend to remember the imaginary friends they had when they were children. It's as if they are staying in touch with those childhood abilities in a way that most of us don't. Successful creative adults seem to combine the wide-ranging exploration and openness we see in children with the focus and discipline we see in adults.

- I was surprised to read how quickly babies seem to absorb the culture that surrounds them. For instance, you say Japanese babies tend to be more anxious than babies from other countries.

That's another thing that studying babies can help make us realize. Many of the things we just take for granted, that we just think are parts of our [personal] backgrounds, are really things that we've learned.

- What are the holy grails for you now in child psychology? What are the pressing questions we're trying to figure out?

The real excitement is collaborating with computer scientists and neuroscientists and starting to understand in detail how children learn so much so quickly. Another interesting frontier is understanding how learning fits with children's emotions and moral relationships. Those two things have tended to be separate - there are people who study emotion and there are people who study knowledge. Increasingly, we're realizing that those things go hand in hand for babies.

- What does all this mean for parents? Does your research have any guidance for raising children?

One takeaway is that the billion-dollar industry of quote-unquote educational toys that are supposed to make your baby smarter is a boondoggle. There's no evidence that any of those things make a difference. Children are learning the way that other people's minds work, which is much more important to learn than even letters and numbers. I'm afraid the parenting advice to come out of developmental psychology is very boring: pay attention to your kids and love them.

Taj Tarik Bey with the reminder of Global History, Law, Government, Nationality

Toyota robot running

Toyota humanoid robot running at 7km/h = 4.35 Miles/hour (mph)

Brooklyn Torch - Greenpoint Greenbacks - Local Currency

Source: Yahoo News, New York Daily News

Northern Brooklyn artists encourgage local spending with unique currency

BY Jeff Wilkins - DAILY NEWS WRITER

It's as if they have a license to print money.

Artists in northern Brooklyn are coming together to create their own cash in hopes of uniting the community and encouraging shoppers to spend locally.

The new funny money, the Brooklyn Torch, is slated to hit the neighborhoods of Greenpoint, Williamsburg and Bushwick sometime this fall.

"We want people to be excited," said artist Mary Jeys, 30, who dreamed up the Greenpoint greenbacks. "This medium of exchange has more to do with meeting people and feeling that you're connected to a community versus a monetary system."

The Torch would be available for Brooklyn residents by an exchange program. The initial exchange rate between dollars and Torches will be one to one. Businesses might provide incentives for shoppers to spend money locally, ultimately raising the Torch's value.

Jeys and a seven-person committee of Brooklyn artists, calling themselves the Brooklyn Torch Project, have worked all summer selling local businesses on the idea of community cash.

"I think it's an awesome idea," said Melanie Campbell, owner of Asia Dog, which sells gourmet hot dogs at bars in Williamsburg. "I like the idea that it raises this sense of community in the big city. We are definitely intrigued."

It's legal to print your own money in the U.S. as long as you don't re-create or deface the dollar, according to the Treasury Department. The Torch would be subject to the same taxes as the dollar.

"It's not some form of tax evasion," said Jeys. "It's way to create a community exchange and make sure money won't leave the area."

Similar currency programs have succeeded elsewhere in the country in cities like Ithaca, N.Y. and Madison, Wis. Ithaca's hometown currency, the Ithaca Hour, started in 1991 and is now accepted by more than 500 businesses.

The Brooklyn Torch Project is in the process of deciding on designs for the currency. Saturday, more than 50 people put their two cents into the design of the torch at Greenpoint's Msgr. McGolrick Park.

"We definitely had kids as young as 7 and adults in their 40s," Jeys said. "We had some really great ideas. Someone drew a kielbasa in the portrait space."

Other ideas included a mustache, a woman holding her finger over her lip, an ice cream cone and a man with lightning coming out of his eyes.

The committee will meet soon to go over the designs.

"The kielbasa looked really nice in orange, I actually liked that one," Jeys said.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias has H1N1 swine flu

Source: Yahoo News, Reuters



By John McPhaul

SAN JOSE (Reuters) – Costa Rican President Oscar Arias is suffering from the H1N1 virus, making him the first head of state known to have contracted swine flu.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Arias, 68, has a mild case of the virus which he tested positive for on on Tuesday after feeling unwell at the weekend, the government said.

Arias is at home and plans to do some work from there.

"Apart from the fever and a soar throat, I feel well and in good shape to carry out my work by telecommuting. I expect to return to all my duties on Monday," he said in a statement.

The H1N1 flu outbreak, declared a pandemic on June 11, has spread around the world since emerging in April and could eventually affect 2 billion people, according to estimates by the U.N. World Health Organization. More than 20 people have died of swine flu in Costa Rica.

Arias suffers from asthma. While the vast majority of swine flu cases have not been serious, infected people who have other medical conditions are most susceptible to complications.

"The tests ... show that there is no other complication," Information Minister Mayi Antillon said.

Some of the president's duties have been given to Cabinet ministers for the moment.

Last month, Arias brokered talks to try to end a political crisis in Honduras after President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a coup on June 28.

Negotiations broke down two weeks ago over whether Zelaya can return to power and Arias' illness is unlikely to affect the situation in Honduras.

Arias won the Nobel prize in 1987 for a peace plan to end Central American civil wars and guerrilla conflicts.

He first served as president from 1986-90 and was re-elected in 2006 on a promise to end corruption and take the small country into a Central American free trade pact with the United States.

Arias broke Costa Rica's decades-old diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 2007 to establish ties with rival Beijing, saying his country could no longer ignore China's growing power in the world.

Doctors ordered Arias last year to stop talking for a month due to a vocal chord ailment. He communicated by writing and typing.

Australia pledges $8 million to save native languages

Source: Yahoo News, AFP

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia has pledged 7.8 million US dollars this year to help save more than 100 indigenous languages which are in grave danger of dying out.

Arts Minister Peter Garrett said the money would be spent on translation services, tests for children and a feasibility study for a national centre for Aboriginal languages.

"These languages are... a significant part of Australia's heritage and we must ensure they are protected for the benefit of future generations," Garrett said.

"A focused and coordinated national approach is critical to safeguard indigenous culture and save these unique languages."

Australia has 145 languages and dialects with 110 at risk, according to a 2005 report, as they are often spoken only by small groups of over-40s. About 30,000 people are currently studying indigenous languages around the country.

Native Australians, who pre-date European settlement by tens of thousands of years, account for about two percent of the population and typically live in small settlements scattered around the continent-sized nation.

An alien finger found in New Jersey

Source: Yahoo News, Associated Press

Scientist: Finger was neither human nor animal

BRIELLE, N.J. – Authorities say a human finger wasn't dropped on a deck at the Jersey shore after all. A forensic anthropologist has determined the object, which resembled a decaying finger with an acrylic french-manicured nail, is neither human nor animal.

Brielle police were called July 30 after a homeowner made the discovery. Officials suspected it may have been dropped by a bird.

The Monmouth County medical examiner could not verify whether the object was a human finger.

State Police Sgt. Stephen Jones says a forensic anthropologist X-rayed it and determined it was made of an unidentified substance.

Rastafarians win suit

Source: Yahoo News, Associated Press, New York Daily News

Rastafarians win suit allowing them to bare dreadlocks at work

A group of Rastafarians who work as public safety officers in Manhattan don't need to hide their dreadlocks under their uniform caps anymore.

The Grand Central Partnership, which protects the area near the Grand Central Terminal, settled a federal lawsuit Friday that accused it of forcing the men to painfully tuck in their long hair and suspending them for allegedly violating a grooming policy.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said that the organization has begun allowing the men to wear their hair in neat ponytails.

The nonprofit agreed to revise its policies and pay the men $40,000 under the terms of the settlement. It said in a statement that it has long given reasonable religious accommodation to its employees upon request.

Sonia Sotomayor takes oath

Source: Yahoo News, Associated Press, CNN





WASHINGTON – Sonia Sotomayor became the Supreme Court's newest justice Saturday, pledging during a brief ceremony at the high court to defend the Constitution and administer impartial justice.

Sotomayor, 55, is the first Hispanic justice and only the third woman in the court's 220-year history.

She took the second of two oaths of office from Chief Justice John Roberts in an ornate conference room, beneath a portrait of the legendary Chief Justice John Marshall. Her left hand resting on a Bible that was held by her mother, Celina, Sotomayor pledged to "do equal right to the poor and to the rich."

Minutes earlier, she swore a first oath in a private ceremony in the room where the justices hold their private conferences.

Sotomayor wore a cream-colored suit and her right ankle, fractured in a fall a couple of weeks after her nomination to the court, was unbandaged. Her 60 or so guests included Justice Anthony Kennedy, White House counsel Greg Craig and other members of the Obama administration team that helped prepare her for her Senate confirmation hearings, family and friends.

Roberts, wearing his black judicial robe, said that once the oaths were done, Sotomayor could "begin work as associate justice without delay."

President Barack Obama scheduled a White House reception for Sotomayor on Wednesday.

The court is set to hear arguments Sept. 9 in a campaign finance case. The entire court will convene the day before for a formal ceremony to welcome Sotomayor.

Sotomayor has been a federal judge for 17 years. Obama nominated her in May to take the place of Justice David Souter after Souter announced his retirement. The Senate confirmed Sotomayor's nomination Thursday by a 68-31 vote.

The oath that Sotomayor took in private is prescribed by the Constitution and required of all federal officials. The second oath, taken in front of a television audience, is spelled out in the 220-year-old federal law that established the federal court system.

During her confirmation hearings last month, Republicans questioned her judicial neutrality, complaining about speeches in which she made controversial statements, including her hope that a "wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experiences" would reach a better conclusion than a white man "who hasn't lived that life."

Sotomayor's confirmation capped an extraordinary rise from humble beginnings. Her parents came to New York from Puerto Rico during World War II. Her father worked in a factory and didn't speak English.

Born in the Bronx and raised in a public housing project not far from the stadium of her favorite team, the New York Yankees, Sotomayor was nine when her father died, leaving her mother to raise her and her younger brother.

Her mother, whom Sotomayor has described as her biggest inspiration, worked six days a week to care for her and her brother, and instilled in them the value of an education.

Sotomayor later graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University and went on to attend Yale Law School, where she was editor of the Yale Law Journal.

She worked at nearly every level of the judicial system over a three-decade career before being chosen by President Obama to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court.

She was named a district judge by President George H.W. Bush in 1992 and was appointed to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by President Clinton in 1998.

Sotomayor presided over about 450 cases while on the district court.

Before her judicial appointments, she was a partner at a private law firm and spent time as an assistant district attorney prosecuting violent crimes.

Sotomayor becomes the 111th person to sit on the Supreme Court.








There goes the Masonic grip.

Bolivian President starts indigenous autonomy

Source: mercopress.com, my indigenous sister



Peasant and indigenous communities will be entitled to vote for more autonomy in referendums next December.

The provisions are contained in a constitution passed earlier this year. The new charter was bitterly opposed by Bolivia's traditional elite.

On Sunday, the provisions allowing for indigenous autonomy were presented in a special event in the eastern region of Santa Cruz.

Morales said it was "a historic day for the peasant and indigenous movement".

"Your president, your companion, your brother Evo Morales might make mistakes but will never betray the fight started by our ancestors and the fight of the Bolivian people," he said.

Morales has championed Bolivia's indigenous people, who for centuries were banished to the margins of society. Indigenous groups have increasingly seized political control, transforming the country into a 21st Century standard bearer for South America's native populations.

But many opposed to Morales and the new constitution believe he is polarising the country by dividing it along racial lines. The referendums in December will be held alongside Bolivia's presidential and parliamentary elections. (BBC)

Genius Birds

Source: Yahoo News, Associated Press

By MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science Writer



NEW YORK – From the goose that laid the golden egg to the race between the tortoise and the hare, Aesop's fables are known for teaching moral lessons rather than literally being true. But a new study says at least one such tale might really have happened.

It's the fable about a thirsty crow. The bird comes across a pitcher with the water level too low for him to reach. The crow raises the water level by dropping stones into the pitcher. (Moral: Little by little does the trick, or in other retellings, necessity is the mother of invention.)

Now, scientists report that some relatives of crows called rooks used the same stone-dropping strategy to get at a floating worm. Results of experiments with three birds were published online Thursday by the journal Current Biology.

Rooks, like crows, had already been shown to use tools in previous experiments.

Christopher Bird of Cambridge University and a colleague exposed the rooks to a 6-inch-tall clear plastic tube containing water, with a worm on its surface. The birds used the stone-dropping trick spontaneously and appeared to estimate how many stones they would need. They learned quickly that larger stones work better.

In an accompanying commentary, Alex Taylor and Russell Gray of the University of Auckland in New Zealand noted that in an earlier experiment, the same birds had dropped a single stone into a tube to get food released at the bottom. So maybe they were just following that strategy again when they saw the tube in the new experiment, the scientists suggested.

But Bird's paper argued there's more to it: The rooks dropped multiple stones rather than just one before reaching for the worm, and they reached for it at the top of the tube rather than checking the bottom.

The researchers also said Aesop's crow might have actually been a rook, since both kinds of birds were called crows in the past.

Egyptian Statue That Looks Like Michael Joseph Jackson

Source: NBC Chicago Station

By ANDREW GREINER



Jackson-like bust gets attention at Field Museum

The Pharaoh of Pop doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as King of Pop, but visitors to Chicago’s Field Museum could swear that’s Jacko’s face on a 3,000-year-old Egyptian bust.

The spitting image limestone sculpture has been on display at the museum since 1988, but recently started drawing attention because of its likeness to Jacko --- complete with disfigured nose.

Unfortunately the bust, which was carved sometime between 1550 B.C. and 1050 B.C., is of a woman and MJ likely never had the chance to see the statuette.

“I have no idea whether Jackson ever visited the museum,” a Field spokesperson said to the Sun-Times' Michael Sneed. “But the similarity between the limestone statue of a woman – which is about 3,000 years old --- and Jackson is astounding.”

Interestingly, Jackson cast himself as an interloper in ancient Egypt in his video for “Remember the Time,” so maybe he sensed some Egyptian roots.

Retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter urges rebirth of civic education

Source: Yahoo News, Associated Press

By MIKE ROBINSON, AP Legal Affairs Writer



CHICAGO – Retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter urged the nation's lawyers Saturday to help revitalize civic education, warning that the failure of many Americans to understand how the government works poses a serious threat.

"There is a danger to judicial independence when people have no understanding of how the judiciary fits into the constitutional scheme," Souter said in his keynote address to the American Bar Association's annual meeting.

Souter pointed to a poll showing two-thirds of Americans can't name the three branches of government — executive, legislative and judicial. He said that has to change to keep the nation's judges independent of political pressures.

"We cannot stand up for the judiciary by leaving two-thirds of the American people ignorant that there are three branches," he said.

Souter, who retired this year, received prolonged applause from members of the bar association, the nation's leading lawyers group.

The New Hampshire native said he learned the lessons of democracy and the functions of the three branches of government as a boy at New England town meetings, adding "for those of you from the hinterland" that such gatherings are "the most radical exercise of American democracy that you can find."

"It didn't matter if someone were rich or poor, young or old, sensible or foolish," he said, meetings were governed by "fundamental fairness."

Souter said a rebirth of civic education that teaches the lessons he learned at those New England town meetings is needed to ensure the nation has "judges who stand up for individual rights against the popular will."

Over 200 sets of twins in an Indian village

Source: Yahoo News, Reuters

By Arko Datta




[Eleven-year-old twin sisters Rasheena M. (L) and Sameena M. pose for a photograph in Kodinji village in the southern Indian state of Kerala]



KODINJI, India (Reuters Life!) – Walk around Kodinji village and you'll think that you have double vision.

The village is home to as many as 230 sets of twins. Nobody knows why there are so many twins in the village of 15,000 people, although one local doctor suspects it might be due to the water.

In fact with about 35-45 twins per live birth, this village in North Kerala, India, has four times more twins than normal. Not surprisingly, the village has been dubbed "the twin village."

The latest official estimates by the Kodinji's Twins and Kins Association (TAKA), which conducted door-to-door surveys at the start of the year, found that there were 204 sets of twins.

Based on births since the survey was conducted, there are probably now around 230 sets of twins in the village, locals said. That number is set to rise as there are five women pregnant with twins.

"It's an amazing phenomenon to see a medical marvel occurring in such a localized place where the people are not exposed to any kinds of harmful drugs or harmful chemicals. It's a virgin village," said Dr Sribiju, a researcher.

Pathummakutty and Kunhipathutty, 65, are the oldest surviving twins in the village. The youngest are Rifa Ayesha and Ritha Ayesha, born on June 10. Their proud parents already see a slight difference between them as one lies fast asleep, while the other kicks away with a mischievous grin on her face.

Being a twin is not always easy. Pathummakutty, who like many in the village have a single name, recalls how her family struggled financially when she was a child. But she also remember good times such as laughter after yet another mix up with her twin sister.

It is not uncommon to run into an identical twin while walking down the hilly roads of Kodinji and there are many tales of teachers getting mixed up between twin students.

At the local school, 15-year-old Salmabi said teachers often confused her for her twin sister and she was once reprimanded for something that her twin did.

"It happens all the time," the students pipe in a chorus.

Scientists are still trying to uncover the mystery of why there are so many twins in the village.

"Based on scientific facts, we feel something in the environment is causing this. It could be something in the water," said a local doctor, M.K. Sribiju.

"All the world over the cause of twins is mainly because of drugs. Everywhere in the Western world, people are exposed to fertility drugs, their food habits, they consume more dairy products. Everywhere the age of marriage is increasing. There are late marriages predisposed to occurrence of twins," he said.

However in Kodinji, most marriages are between people aged 18 to 20 years old.

"All the factors leading to the occurrence of twinning world wide, we cannot see it here. There is something unknown that is causing this phenomenon," he said.

The locals also believe it has to do with the water. Kodinji is surrounded by water in the fields and during the monsoon season it becomes inaccessible from heavy rains.

As scientists try to find the reason for the large numbers of twins in the village, the parents are busy trying to tell their children apart. It doesn't help that many of the twins have similar names and often wear similar clothes.

While parents light-heartedly point out that their twins even seem to fall sick together, not all traits are shared. Identical twins Anu and Abhi prefer different film stars and one of the boys likes to play cricket, while the other prefers kicking a soccer ball.

With all the attention being showered on the twins of Kodinji, Ajmer, a 12-year-old school boy, feels like the odd one out in a village where being a twin is trendy.

Prison and Jail = big money

Source: Yahoo News, Associated Press

By DEBORAH HASTINGS, AP National Writer





A one-night stay? Ninety dollars. Need to see a doctor? Ten bucks. Want toilet paper? Pay for it yourself.

In the ever-widening search for extra income during desperate economic times, some elected officials are embracing a new idea: making inmates pay their debt to society not only in hard time, but also in cold, hard cash.

In New York, GOP Assemblyman James Tedisco introduced a bill that would charge wealthy criminals $90 a day for room and board at state prisons.

Dubbed the "Madoff Bill," after billion-dollar Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff, the legislation is designed to ease the $1 billion annual cost of incarcerating prisoners.

"This concept says if you can afford it, or even some of it, you're going to help the beleaguered taxpayers who play by the rules," Tedisco said.

In Arizona's Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, Sheriff Joe Arpaio calls himself America's toughest sheriff and makes prisoners sleep in tents in 100-degree-plus heat.

Earlier this year, he announced that inmates would be charged $1.25 per day for meals. His decision followed months of food strikes staged by inmates who complained of being fed green bologna and moldy bread.

In Iowa's Des Moines County, where officials faced a $1.7 million budget hole this year, politicians considered charging prisoners for toilet paper — at a savings of $2,300 per year. The idea was ultimately dropped, after much derision.

A New Jersey legislator introduced a bill similar to New York's, this one based on fees charged by the Camden County Correctional Facility, which bills prisoners $5 a day for room and board and $10 per day for infirmary stays — totaling an estimated $300,000 per year.

In Virginia, Richmond's overcrowded city jail has begun charging $1 per day, hoping to earn as much as $200,000 a year. In Missouri's Taney County, home to Branson, the sheriff says charging inmates $45 per day will help pay for his new $27 million jail.

Prisons and jails took some of the biggest cuts this summer when legislators took machetes to their state budgets, trying to slash their way out of an economic morass exacerbated by dwindling tax revenues. But to civil rights advocates — and some law enforcement officials — trying to raise money by charging inmates makes no sense.

"The overwhelming number of people who end up in prison are poor," said Elizabeth Alexander, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project. "The number of times in which these measures actually result in a lot of money coming in is very small."

Alexander also says such efforts only amount to political window dressing. "They allow someone to look tough on crime instead of being effective," she said.

Collecting the fees covers a wide spectrum. In Richmond, they are deducted from a prisoner's personal account — which contains whatever money relatives send and any cash the suspect had when arrested. In Arizona, sheriff Arpaio, who makes inmates wear pink underwear to increase the humiliation factor, also taps prisoner accounts. Inmates who have no money still receive food, the sheriff says.

Other authorities slap the prisoner with a bill upon release from prison. But it's often hard to collect. In Kansas, Overland Park officials acknowledged collecting only 39 percent of fees. In Missouri's Jackson County, officials discovered they spent more money trying to collect fees than they actually received from inmates.

In some cases, it's prisoners' families who shoulder the financial burden.

"It's the spouses, children and parents who pay the fees. They are the people who contribute to prisoners' canteen accounts," said Sarah Geraghty of the Southern Center for Human Rights, which successfully opposed an effort earlier this year in Georgia to bill prisoners $40 per day.

The money was to be collected by seizing cash in their jail accounts or by filing lawsuits. The proposal also would have denied parole to those who could not make payments after being freed.

"It makes no sense to release people with $25, a bus ticket and $40,000 in reimbursement fees," she said. "Saddling people with thousands of dollars in debt is contradictory to helping someone become a functioning member of society."

In recent years, as get-tough sentencing and drug penalties increased, the nation's prison population skyrocketed. Chain gangs returned to states including Arizona and Alabama. Premium cable was eliminated in federal prisons. New York killed an inmate program that paid tuition for college-degree programs.

But trying to make prisoners pay to serve time is a wasted effort, civil rights advocates say. "This is a dry well," Alexander said. "They're not going to solve this (economic) problem by going down it."

Asked if she had heard about Des Moines County's proposal to charge inmates for toilet paper, Alexander laughed.

"I did not," she replied. "That's a good metaphor for the whole effort."

Willard Wigan and his amazing micro-sculpture

Source: Youtube channel TEDtalksDirector

"Willard Wigan tells the story of how a difficult and lonely childhood drove him to discover his unique ability -- to create art so tiny that it can't be seen with the naked eye. His slideshow of figures, as seen through a microscope, can only be described as mind-boggling."

Michael Pritchard makes filthy water drinkable

Source: Youtube channel TEDtalksDirector

"Too much of the world lacks access to clean drinking water. Engineer Michael Pritchard did something about it -- inventing the portable Lifesaver filter, which can make the most revolting water drinkable in seconds."

Instant Braille device - software

Source: newscientist.com

Innovation: Award-winning product design of 2009

The 2009 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) competition winner. Co-sponsored by BusinessWeek magazine and the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), the awards are "dedicated to fostering business and public understanding of the importance of industrial design excellence to the quality of life and economy", says the IDSA.



Non-Braille books are made accessible to the blind with the Haptic Reader, designed by researchers at Handong Global University and Keimyung University, both in South Korea.

When placed on a page, the reader scans typed letters and converts them to their Braille equivalent on the device's upper surface. The text can also be converted to speech.

World Air Traffic 24 Hour Period

Source: Youtube channel mlepisto

"The yellow dots are aircraft.

It is a 24 hour observation of all of the large aircraft flights in the
world, condensed down to about 2 minutes. You can tell it was summer
time in the north by the sun's footprint over the planet. You could see
that it didn't quite set in the extreme north and it didn't quite rise in
the extreme south.

Notice that as evening approaches, the traffic is predominantly from the US
to Europe and when daylight comes, the traffic switches and it
is predominantly from Europe to the US."

Boxes of treasure found in Mongolia

Source: Yahoo News, AFP

by Michael Kohn





ULAN BATOR (AFP) – Digging for buried treasure in the Gobi Desert sounds like the opening scene of an Indiana Jones film. For Austrian-born Michael Eisenriegler, it was a real-life adventure.

The 40-year-old amateur archaeologist was in the Gobi over the weekend, helping to unearth Buddhist relics that had been buried for more than seven decades in a remote part of Mongolia.

Less than an hour of digging revealed two crates filled with priceless treasure, including rare manuscripts, Buddhist statues and clothing.

The relics were once part of a much larger cache of artwork housed at Khamaryn monastery, located 450 kilometres (280 miles) southeast of the capital, Ulan Bator.

The monastery was looted and destroyed by order of the communist government in 1937, but not before one monk named Tuduv hid many of the sacred objects.

Around 1,500 boxes of treasure had originally been stored at the monastery. Tuduv managed to bury 64 of them. The rest were destroyed.

Tuduv maintained the secret of the hidden crates for decades until finally revealing the story to his grandson Zundoi Altangerel.

When freedom of religion was allowed with the end of communism in 1990, Altangerel dug up a third of the boxes and placed his findings in a new museum.

Eisenriegler, an online media producer, visited the museum in 2008, met Altangerel, and learned that many more boxes still lay hidden in the Gobi.

The museum was apparently not safe enough to house all the artefacts so Altangerel left about 20 boxes hidden in the wilderness. His grandfather had made him memorise the exact location of the crates.

Eisenriegler convinced the historian to dig up some of the boxes. That happened on Saturday with a joint team of Mongolian and Austrian experts on hand to inspect the items as they came out of the ground.

"My ancestors protected these boxes for many years. Now it is my duty to protect them," said Altangerel after the dig. "In the future we plan to dig up the remaining crates."

The event was filmed and streamed live on the Internet. Web users who logged on to the site, www.gobi-treasure.com, were encouraged to donate money, which will be given to Altangerel to improve his museum.

Viewers watched as the excavators spent 45 minutes digging into the earth, lifted the boxes out of the ground and displayed their contents.

The boxes housed a trove of artefacts including bronze statues, holy texts known as sutras and other riches. Altangerel carefully lifted the items out of the boxes and described their meaning.

Many were musical instruments, possibly used in Buddhist ceremonies at the monastery. He displayed a small drum that he described as a child?s toy.

The crates also contained manuscripts. Historians are interested in studying the texts, hoping they will provide clues to daily life at Khamaryn Khiid.

"We were deeply impressed with this event.... These treasures were some of the most amazing things that I have seen, especially the statues," Eisenriegler said after the dig.

The texts should also go a long way in helping historians better understand the founder of the monastery, Danzan Ravjaa, who lived from 1803 to 1856.

The legendary monk wrote hundreds of poems, performed Mongolia?s first opera and established schools and a museum. Wild legends about his miraculous feats still circulate among the Gobi nomads.

"We did this as a way to promote Danzan Ravjaa in the West," said Eisenriegler. "He is worth being studied and known in the West. We also want Mongolians to get to know their history and Danzan Ravjaa is a big part of that."

Danzan Ravjaa was best known for writing Mongolia?s first opera, Saran Khokhoo, or "Moon Cuckoo." He staged the event at various monasteries across the Gobi Desert, raising money for building projects at his monastery.

When Danzan Ravjaa died his mummified body was placed inside the White Temple of Khamaryn Khiid, and boxes of treasure were set around the body.

The relics remained there until the 1930s when the Mongolian army closed the monastery and arrested most of the monks, charging them with "counter-revolutionary activities."

After hiding the boxes, the lama Tuduv escaped the carnage and became a herder. Over the decades he kept an eye on the boxes while preparing his grandson for the responsibility of taking care of the treasures.

The monastery reopened in 1991 and is now served by about 20 monks. It has become a popular pilgrimage destination for Mongolians seeking spiritual solace.

Rahim El of MoorWay Management Receives Prestigious Honor

Source: prweb.com



Rahim El of MoorWay Management Receives Prestigious Honor of Delaware Minority Small Business Person of the Year from Small Business Administration

Wilmington, DE July 23, 2009 -- The President and CEO of MoorWay Management, Inc., Rahim El, has been named the Delaware Minority Small Business Person of the Year. This award will be presented on October 1st, 2009.

The criteria for this award are a)the nominee must be at least 51% owned and controlled by one or more socially and economically disadvantaged individuals, as defined in SBA's regulations, b) the nominee's firm must be in satisfactory financial condition and demonstrate growth in total sales, net profit, and number of full-time employees, c)nominee's firm must have been in business at least three (3) years, d) if the nominee's firm is a government contractor, it must have performed satisfactorily on all contracts, and have had no terminations for default, and e) if a nominee has an SBA loan, payment record must be satisfactory and the loan must be current.

The nomination was made by Bob Rausch, Business Advisor of the Delaware SBDC and Juanita Beauford of PTAC. The nominee's are evaluated on growth in total sales, net profit and number of employees, participation in community projects and charitable affairs, overcoming bstacles/adversities and uniqueness and use of minority firms as suppliers and contractors.

MoorWay Management has successfully completed twenty-five (25) projects on time and within budget in 2009 and as of their last newsletter, is hiring. MoorWay has worked on various projects including projects with Dover AFB, Dover Downs Hotel & Casino and Wilmington Housing Authority.
MoorWay Management is active in the community working with Connection, a community-based organization helping ex-offenders turn their life around and other community-based organizations to make a difference in young people's lives.

"Receiving this award by the SBA solidifies our approach to Business. I dedicate most of my time to client relations," said Mr. El. "Keeping the clients satisfied is extremely important to me. This award is also a testimony to the dedication of my management staff and employees. They work really hard to deliver the goals and expectations I put forth."

For more information on MoorWay Management, please visit www.moorwaymanagement.com or call 302-764-5002 Wilmington office or 302-674-8878 at the Dover office.

About MoorWAy Management:

Founded in 2000, Wilmington based MoorWay Management Inc. is a Management company providing General Contracting Services, Property Management and Maintenance Services, specializing in Drywall and Painting. MoorWay Management provides services for Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. Currently, MoorWay Management Inc. is a member and/or affiliated with the following professional organizations: Associated Builders Contractors Delaware, African American Latino Chamber of Commerce of Delaware, Hispanic Business Association of Delaware, and Moorish Science Temple of America. MoorWay Management Inc. is currently certified MBE/DBE by the City of Wilmington, Delaware Dept of Transportation and Office of Minority & Women Business Enterprises of State of Delaware.

* Click for the link to see MoorWay website - MoorWay Managment

Michael Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray masonic picture

Source: Yahoo News, AFP